Brain radiation is a crucial tool in neuro-oncology for enhancing local tumor control, but it can lead to mild-to-profound and progressive impairments in cognitive function. Radiation-induced brain injury is a significant adverse effect of radiotherapy for cranioencephalic tumors, primarily caused by indirect cellular damage through the formation of free radicals. This results in late neurotoxicity manifesting as cognitive impairment due to free radical production. The aim of this review is to highlight the role of different substances, such as drugs used in the clinical setting and antioxidants such as ascorbate, in reducing the neurotoxicity associated with radiation-induced brain injury. Currently, there is mainly preclinical and clinical evidence supporting the benefit of these interventions, representing a cost-effective and straightforward neuroprotective strategy.

Glioblastoma (GB) is the most frequent and aggressive primary tumor of the central nervous system (CNS) in adults. Standard treatment is complete tumor resection followed by concomitant radiochemotherapy (RCT) and subsequent adjuvant temozolomide (TMZ). Information about brain tumors statistics in Latin American countries is scarce, so we aimed to measure the overall survival (OS) of patients with resected GB in a single institution in Chile. This is a retrospective report of 67 patients treated between 2012 and 2019 with resected GB and who received adjuvant treatment with radiotherapy (RT) with and without TMZ during 2012-2019 in this center (Chilean NCI). Most of them were men (72%), ages > 50 years old (57%), with Karnofsky performance status (KPS) scale ≥ 70% (94%) and recursive partitioning analysis-IV (RPA-IV) (60%). Some 54% received concomitant TMZ and RT. Median OS was 11.4 months, with 1-, 2-, and 5-year OS of 48%,15%, and 3% respectively. In conclusion, in patients with GB treated with RCT at the NCI, OS was the same as expected from international articles. Adjuvant RCT therefore is considered the standard of care at NCI.